Does rugby's reputation make it an attractive advertising partner?

With the Rugby World Cup just a few weeks' away, we take a look at the relationship between the sport and its sponsors, and why rugby is becoming more and more attractive to advertisers looking to partner with sporting events.

In a recent article for Marketing Magazine, Shona Ghosh suggested that rugby is "the only clean sport left for brands". With the World Cup around the corner this question has particular resonance. adconnection takes a look at what makes rugby attractive to brands and what effect the World Cup could have on the sport's future as a reliable brand partner.

Brands are proud to align themselves with rugby's values

The sport's reputation: its robust values of teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline and sportsmanship, its strong heritage and palpable sociality, has attracted brands to its advertising opportunities. Long term partner, O2, believes it's the best deal of its kind in the country. Gareth Griffiths, head of sports sponsorship at O2, said: "The reason we're so proud to partner with England Rugby is the values that the RFU and [head coach] Stuart Lancaster have. We have very high standards we expect of them. If we were in football, we wouldn't be happy."

By advertising at the Rugby World Cup, brands are aligning themselves with the passion, comradery and sense of pride that inevitably sweeps over a country when it becomes the host of an international tournament of this stature. DHL, for example, is one of the headline sponsors and not perhaps the most obvious brand to partner with rugby - it's neither beer nor a financial service, sectors that pretty much dominate rugby advertising. But according to DHL's global sponsorship manager, Fiona Taag, the partnership is "about emotionalising our brand", stating that DHL is "pretty much a household name, now we want to tell DHL's story".

One of DHL's objectives is to encourage employee engagement with the sport to get them thinking about the values of rugby: teamwork, respect and discipline etc., and how they relate to DHL's own workings. This is a really interesting brand goal and further demonstrates how much the values of rugby are influencing brands' decisions to sponsor the sport.

It's worth making the comparison here between rugby and football when it comes to brand partnerships. Players are ambassadors for their sport. They are also brand ambassadors for whoever is sponsoring them. Individual players carry responsibility and influence and it's therefore important that they conduct themselves accordingly. Someone like Johnny Wilkinson is a reliable brand ambassador - free of scandal and gossip. On the other side of the field, someone like Rooney who is more well known than Wilkinson, but whose dubious behaviour has resulted in numerous not-so-complementary front page spreads in tabloid papers - is a riskier brand partner, despite his unquestionable talent. Brands must be cautious about who and what they align themselves with - they could quite easily become inextricably linked.

Record breaking audiences

The Rugby World Cup represents a major opportunity for (the right) brands to be associated with what is reportedly the third-biggest global sporting event, behind the Olympics and FIFA World Cup. Rugby is becoming more and more popular in the UK. Earlier this year, the Six Nations drew record-breaking TV audiences, with peak for the BBC at 9.63 million for the England v France match. The same competition also saw the BBC Sport website record it's highest ever traffic at 8.22 million unique UK browsers - more than the London Olympics in 2012. Rugby's popularity is surging considerably and the World Cup will only bolster this.

RWC 2015 is on track to be the best-attended, most-viewed, most commercially successful, socially engaged and most competitive Rugby World Cup to date. Ernst & Young, the official business partner for the tournament, has reported how international visitors alone are expected to contribute up to £869 million in direct expenditure, with up to 466,000 visits expected across the six week tournament. According to the E&Y report, the whole event is expected to deliver up to £2.2 billion in output for Britain. The same report also reveals that only the Football World Cups deliver more paid attendances to a single sport event than RWC.

Though London will support the majority of matches, (divided between Twickenham, Wembley and the Olympic Stadium), the Rugby World Cup 2015 is to be hosted in cities across the UK, from Exeter to Newcastle. The inclusive nature of the tournament allows the economic benefits to spread throughout the nation. Sponsorship, partnering and supporting brands will increase their reach 10 fold and the throng of foreign visitors will ensure increased exposure to a global audience. For brands looking to partner with a sporting event, RWC makes an attractive proposition

Value for money

Partnering with tournaments and advertising at rugby matches isn't for everyone. It mostly attracts financial services or big name brands such as Land Rover and O2. This is no surprise given the ABC1, generally affluent demographic. (Though we may see this change in the coming years as the audience demographic continues to shift to include more women and families). However, the low cost of sponsorships deals (the six headline sponsors are reported to have paid £6.45m for each partnerships), and value for money on partnerships and support advertising opens doors to brands on lower budgets as well.

The World Cup, as with any international sporting event, will strengthen interest in the sport and owing in part to to its relatively low sponsorship prices, as well as its host of trusted players, widening demographic and strong values, rugby is becoming an increasingly attractive sporting partner.